1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods of data collection and obtaining respondents for data collection. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods of conducting surveys and collecting information.
2. Background of the Related Art
Surveys and other data collection techniques have been used extensively in the field of marketing research. Traditional forms of surveying or data collection are plagued with many problems, at least two of which result in severe inefficiencies. First, traditional surveys, such as telephone surveys or face-to-face surveys conducted in public places such as shopping malls produce a very small number of participants relative to the number of people solicited. Further, many of those who are contacted find such unsolicited contact offensive, which could result in negative publicity for the product or organization for which the survey is being conducted.
Second, the low response rate to a traditional survey is compounded by the fact that a large percentage of the people completing the survey may not be members of a desired target audience.
As a result, traditional surveying or data collecting techniques are expensive and time consuming relative to the amount of good quality relevant data collected.
An object of the invention is to solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described hereinafter.
Another object of the invention is to greatly reduce inefficiencies found in traditional methods of conducting surveys or data collection. Reducing these inefficiencies can greatly increase the quality of the data collected while reducing the cost of collection.
An embodiment of the invention that achieves these objective is a method of soliciting people interested in completing surveys on the internet. Such people would become members of a network of people who are interested in answering surveys. Members of the network are then encouraged to refer friends that are interested in becoming members of the network. Members are rewarded for each survey they complete, each survey completed by members they referred to the network, and each survey completed by members referred to the network by their referrals. This three-tier reward system provides significant incentive not only for members to complete surveys, but for members to refer friends to the network.
An example of a method of the invention is a method of collecting data by a data collector, the method including receiving first identification information of a first user and second identification information of a second user, the second user being referred to the data collector by the first user. The second identification information is then analyzed to determine whether second user data should be received. If the second user data is received, the first user is rewarded.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.